General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Neil deGrasse Tyson Tells GMO Critics to "Chill Out" [View all]mike_c
(36,281 posts)It is especially common among single celled prokaryotes, like bacteria, who exchange specific genes among species frequently. Many specific bacterial adaptations result from lateral gene transfer between different species, including antibiotic resistance. It is also common among some unicellular eukaryotes, and there are several known instances among multicellular eukaryotes as well.
Part of the issue for multicellular organisms is that lateral gene transfer takes place fairly easily within a unicellular organism's environment, but the environment of most cells in multicellular organisms is composed of the organism itself, making horizontal gene transfer more difficult. In fact, one can argue that sexual reproduction itself evolved to facilitate this, and that vertical gene transmission and horizontal transfer are just two sides of the same information recombination coin.
But anyway, before this becomes a technical discussion, the answer to your question is yes, lateral gene transfer between species is common in nature and has been an essential feature of the evolution of several of the largest and most common groups of organisms.